"That was quite a weird incident there," Harvick said from victory lane.

Kyle Busch, who was leading the race at the time, had damage to the right front of his car. Mark Martin and Marcos Ambrose also had damage.

NASCAR allowed teams to repair their cars during the red flag and retain their position on the track. Busch maintained the lead when the race resumed before losing it during the next round of green-flag pit stops. He later fell out of the race with a blown engine.

Kahne was leading when the field began making green-flag pit stops with 37 laps remaining. When the stops were complete, Kahne was pulling away for what looked like a sure win.

But a late caution flag for debris changed all that and left crew chiefs with crucial decisions to make. Kahne decided to stay on the track while the rest of the leaders pitted for new tires. Harvick beat the rest of the leaders off pit road, putting him in position to race Kahne for the win.

With two new tires, Harvick beat Kahne on the final restart and pulled away for his second win of the season.

"It was a good strategy call there," Harvick said. "The 5 (Kahne) stayed out and we were able to have a little fresher tires to get ahead of him on the restart."

Harvick won the 600 in 2011 when some of the leaders ran out of fuel in the final laps.

"We won on fuel-mileage last time. We just went and won it this time," he said.

Kahne, meanwhile, was lamenting what might have been after dominating much of the race and having the fastest car all weekend. He said he said he expected only a few drivers to pit during the final caution period.

"But that didn't happen," he said. "The whole field pitted and we were in a tough spot. I knew Kevin would be good; he was fast all weekend. … We raced all day and thought we were in a really good position at the end. We just didn't get it done."

Kurt Busch finished third despite leading when the race was red-flagged late in the race for a multicar crash. When the race resumed, Busch's car would not start because of a dead battery and he had to pit, losing valuable track position.

He rallied to finish third but was disappointed with the outcome for his small, single-car team.

"I'm still shell-shocked," he said. "We picked up the lead and the battery went dead. I don't know what to think about that. We battled back and got third. You have to be perfect to win these things and we were close but we weren't quite there."

Matt Kenseth dominated a portion of the race, leading by as much as six seconds at one point, but fell back in the pack and was taken out when Jimmie Johnson wrecked with less than 70 laps remaining.

Johnson was racing Martin Truex Jr. when he lost control of his car and spun, and Kenseth and Juan Pablo Montoya collided. Paul Menard and Tony Stewart also were involved. Johnson, the points leader, wound up finishing 22nd.

Kenseth and Johnson were among a host of contenders and big names who were taken out in wrecks or by bizarre circumstances.

Kyle Busch recovered from the damage to his car from the broken TV cable, but his chances of winning disappeared when his engine blew on Lap 257. He had led 65 laps early and was running in the to five when his engine soured.

"I thought we (had) a fourth- or fifth-place car tonight," Busch said. "We had been running first, second, third much of the evening. But it was just catastrophic engine failure.

"It seems to be that time of year again."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. also had an engine failure about the same time, bringing out a caution flag on Lap 258. When smoke exploded from Earnhardt's car, it led to a wreck behind him as Greg Biffle slammed the wall and Dave Blaney and Travis Kvapil crashed behind them.

And that wasn't the last crash.

Danica Patrick was racing three-wide with boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski when Stenhouse appeared to drift up into Patrick, who slammed into Keselowski.

Keselowski, who finished 36th for his fourth straight poor finish, took the blame for the incident.

"Just three-wide with Danica and didn't know it and cut her off and wrecked her and myself," Keselowski said. "I feel bad for her and want to apologize to her."